2 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



It is just possible that, thanks to a greatly reduced pursuit 

 of them, some species, marketable and otherwise, have numeri- 

 cally benefited by this abnormal close season — certainly two or 

 three species, which will be mentioned later on, visited us more 

 numerously, or at periods when not expected — and it has been 

 remarked that the fewer boats engaged in the Herring fishery 

 have made proportionately greater catches. The quality of the 

 Herrings, to my mind, has been superior ; I have never enjoyed 

 such fat and palatable Herrings as have blessed my table during 

 this fateful " voyage." 



The shrimpers found themselves restricted in their fishing 

 areas; but catches of " Brown" (Sand) Shrimps were fairly well 

 up to the average. Some grounds annually worked with success 

 were forbidden, others were fished only at intervals, owing to 

 the diverging times of the tides, night-fishing being prohibited. 

 At the well-known "ross" ground (a Sabella-covQred. area) 

 between Gorleston and Lowestoft, where " Pinks " (Pandalus 

 montagid) are most abundantly met with, numbers of the 

 Common Prawn {Palcemon serratus), of a goodly size, although 

 not so large as taken in the Channel, were somewhat numerously 

 captured — probably the lessened disturbance favoured their 

 visits. Sometimes two or three pints of them were netted by 

 one shrimper on a tide, whereas in past years odd ones only had 

 been caught, and were exhibited in the shrimpers' windows as 

 objects of curiosity. 



Having regard to Mr. H. N. Milligan's remarks on his 

 captive crustaceans,* the following facts may be of some 

 interest : ** Pink Shrimps " (^sop Prawn) are hereabouts caught 

 in 7 to 10 fathoms, on rough ground ("ross"). "Browns" 

 {Crangon vulgaris), with a small sprinkling of C. trispinosus, etc., 

 are sought closer inshore, in 2 to 3 fathoms, the sunnier the 

 weather the better. On an easterly wind, with the water 

 " sheer " (clear transparent green) hauls are poor. A north- 

 westerly wind thickens the water, and if followed by a westerly 

 or south-westerly breeze, catches are greatly increased. Too 

 much nor'-westerly wind sends round " muck" (broken red sea- 

 weeds), making hand-sorting slow and laborious. For " Pinks " 



* Vide " Hardiness in the Common Prawn, ^sop Prawn, and Shrimp " 

 ('Zoologist,' September, 1915, p. 359). 



